In 1860, the Old Summer Palace was looted and burned by the British and French forces. Forty or fifty halls in the Yuanmingyuan are decorated with countless red sandalwood furniture and display a large number of domestic and foreign treasures, including brocades, rugs, Zhou and Shang bronzes, ceramics, lacquerware, ivory carvings, agate, crystal, amber, and wood carvings. Jade, gems, calligraphy and painting, clocks, ancient books, etc. After the Old Summer Palace was looted, a large number of unparalleled treasures were scattered overseas. The most concentrated places were the British Museum and Fontainebleau in France. The United States, Japan, and Western European museums also have precious cultural relics from the Old Summer Palace.

The cultural relics of the Old Summer Palace dedicated to the Queen are stored in the British Museum. Among them, "The Proverbs of the Female History" painted by the great painter Gu Kaizhi during the Eastern Jin Dynasty is a rare treasure of ancient Chinese scroll painting. At present, the British Museum has more than 30,000 rare items from China's past dynasties. There are also many Old Summer Palace art works collected in another famous museum in London, the Victoria and Arbat Museum. The most eye-catching one is the glass painting "The Emperor Meets the Barbarians at the foot of Wanshou Mountain". The emperor in the painting is probably Jiajing. emperor.

The Chinese Pavilion at the Palace of Fontainebleau in France was established by Eugenie, the queen of French Emperor Napoleon III. The reason for its construction is simple: to store the cultural relics taken from the Old Summer Palace.

Many museums in the United States also have artifacts from the Old Summer Palace. Liang Qichao visited the New York Museum in the United States in May of the 19th year of Guangxu (AD 1893) and was surprised to find that it contained "the largest collection of palace objects in China". He believed that half of them were treasures from the Old Summer Palace, while the other half were plundered from the Imperial Palace in Beijing when the United States participated in the Eight-Power Allied Forces' invasion of China. Among these art treasures is the pocket watch used by Emperor Xianfeng, which is said to have been a gift from the Russian royal family. Its exquisite carvings are unparalleled. The watch is no bigger than an inch in diameter. Two naked beauties are leaning on the waterfall and two birds are bathing under the waterfall. The watch moves so that the waterfall sprays foam to achieve its work. In addition, there are "carved jade objects, ancient and modern porcelain, hundreds of things, and a niche, too numerous to mention." The Kangxi Ruyi jade collected in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, USA, is one of the lost art treasures of the Old Summer Palace. It is carved from a piece of precious white jade, nearly half a meter long, green in the middle, and carved into the shape of a porous fungus. There are two big characters "Yuzhi" on the top of the handle, and the lower part is engraved with the inscription: "I wish you many good harvests, and the world will have good prosperity. Your Majesty Wu Jingjin." After it was snatched away by the British and French forces, it was auctioned at a Paris auction and finally ended up in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The "Portrait of Emperor Qianlong and his Eleven Concubines" painted by Castiglione and collected in the Cleveland Museum of Art in the United States shows the heroic and lifelike Emperor Qianlong in his youth. Qianlong only saw this painting three times in his life: when it was completed, when he was seventy years old, and when he abdicated. It can be seen that Qianlong cherished this painting.

"Yongle Dadian"

"The Picture of Proverbs of Women's History" and "Picture of Luo Shen Fu" by Gu Kaizhi of the Eastern Jin Dynasty

Kangxi Jade Ruyi

"Qianlong" Portraits of the Empress and Eleven Concubines"

"Sikuquanshu"

There are now more than 30,000 rare items from Chinese dynasties in the British Museum.

The China Pavilion in the Palace of Fontainebleau in France has a collection of more than 30,000 Chinese cultural relics